


Time Takes All of Us (Through Every Long Hot Heavy Summer)

by sweeterthankarma



Series: Pride Month Prompts 2020 [22]
Category: The Half of It (2020)
Genre: Best Friends, Established Relationship, F/F, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-06-22
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:40:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24873196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweeterthankarma/pseuds/sweeterthankarma
Summary: Paul interrupts them, winning another game of Rock Band (Ellie doesn’t know much about it, but it seems like the sort of thing you can win at), seemingly unaware of their own conversation, the fact that they’re in their own little bubble. Honestly, Ellie has to hand it to him, he hasn’t been weird at all about her and Aster finally getting together.
Relationships: Ellie Chu & Aster Flores & Paul Munsky, Ellie Chu/Aster Flores
Series: Pride Month Prompts 2020 [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1769956
Comments: 15
Kudos: 105





	Time Takes All of Us (Through Every Long Hot Heavy Summer)

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Pride Month and welcome to my first ever month-long fic challenge! For thirty days, I'll be writing and posting LGBTQ+ fics inspired by the prompts listed [here](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/517562182177703635/). These fics will be anywhere from 100-1,500 words, will be for different fandoms, ships and characters, and will all stand alone. Here goes nothing!
> 
> Day 22 Prompt: Sustained.
> 
> Title comes from the song "Hot Heavy Summer" by Ben Howard and Sylvan Esso.
> 
> Special shoutout to my great friend [iknowplaces](https://archiveofourown.org/users/iknowplaces/pseuds/iknowplaces) for helping me with inspiration for this fic, as well as providing Rock Band logistics!

Summers in Squahamish are as boring as they’ve always been, but if she’s honest, Ellie didn’t expect anything else. It’s a familiar place, sturdy and unchanging, and she likes that about it, even if she does miss the Midwest and her friends at school. She’s never been much for parties, but she longs for the easiness of Friday nights, the knowledge that she could walk down any hallway of any dorm and be surrounded by a variety of opportunities and outings. Sure, she usually chose to stay in with her friends and read or watch movies, but the potential was palpable. Besides, she likes what she likes. 

The only social gatherings back home are cookouts, bonfires and stoner sessions, though they’re off limits now anyway, invites offered only to current students and the “cool” graduates, the ones who haven’t grown or changed at all in the past few years. The ones who come back to their tiny, sleepy town exactly the way they left it, if they ever dared to leave it at all. So, certainly not Ellie or Aster. 

It’s not like either of them ever went in the past or would have wanted to now. Especially since now they’re actually, really,  _ finally  _ together, both twenty years old and rising juniors with practically the whole summer open to them as they flounder blissfully in the newness of their relationship. Aside from their jobs they’re free, though Ellie’s shifts almost always include both Aster and Paul by her side, distracting her for the better.

Every day, Ellie wakes up and knows that she and her favorite people can do pretty much anything and everything they want to do. The rules and schedules they follow are more than lenient, even Aster’s new job at the ritzy restaurant the next town over. The problem is, there’s really not much to do. Like, nothing. At all. 

Paul and Mr. Chu cook up extravagant dinners nearly every night, always unique and usually tasty— key word:  _ usually. _ _ _ Ellie’s happy, she really is; just being with her girlfriend and her best friend every day is more than enough, even if all they do is lay on her bedroom floor and talk about the universe, Paul bouncing a marbled rubber ball he got from a coin machine at the grocery store against the ceiling— and then eventually, accidentally losing it behind Ellie’s bed, never to be seen again. 

Life is simple. Fun. Good. Still, that doesn’t stop Ellie from sometimes  wishing they were somewhere more enthralling. Like New York. Or Los Angeles. Chicago. London. Honolulu. 

“Dublin,” Aster suggests, voice hushed as to not distract Paul. She and Ellie sit close together on the worn, floral loveseat in his parents’ basement, Ellie practically on Aster’s lap, while Paul enthusiastically plays Rock Band on Wii. He hums along to himself, muttering lyrics under his breath as he doesn’t tear his eyes from the screen.

“We could drink legally,” Ellie agrees. She’ll still take Yakult over beer any day— correction: she’ll take Yakult over _anything—_ but she’s had her fair share of alcohol at Grinnell, enough to garner a taste for it. A tour of the Guinness factory is certainly appealing, having seen photos from her friends at school who studied abroad and took trips there, and so is the idea of stumbling around Ireland’s cobblestone streets and colorful awnings with Aster’s hand tight in hers. She can see it now: Aster’s long, dark hair blowing in the breeze, laughing as Ellie almost trips, always a lightweight. She’d be gloriously doomed, intoxicated by everything good in the world. 

“And go to the Cliffs of Moher!” Aster adds excitedly.

Ellie shifts her position to better face her, turning so her back is against the side of the chair and her legs are bunched up, crossed and folded, on Aster’s lap. Aster’s left hand, the one that isn’t on Ellie’s cheek and tickling the nearby strands of hair, immediately drops onto Ellie’s knees. She’s always touching her in any way that she can. Ellie fights back her smile at the realization, tones it down to a smirk instead of a full on toothy grin.

“The Cliffs of Moher are on the opposite side of Ireland,” Ellie points out, and Aster nods, knowing this, of course. 

“Yeah, and we could make a trip out of it. I know the exact bus route to take.”

Ellie rolls her eyes, the motion filled with affection. “Of course you do.” 

Aster looks proud, flipping her hair as she starts to say something about how she tried to plan a trip there as a reward for graduating high school but her parents never really entertained it— and that fact alone just about breaks Ellie’s heart, makes her determined to take Aster someday— but then Paul interrupts them. He’s winning another game (Ellie doesn’t know much about it, but it seems like the sort of thing you can win at), seemingly unaware of their own conversation, the fact that they’re in their own little bubble. Honestly, Ellie has to hand it to him, he hasn’t been weird at all about her and Aster finally getting together. He never minds third wheeling, not even at times like this when they’re already touching so much but Aster still goes to nuzzle her face into Ellie’s neck. Paul cheers as he nears the end of the song, “Dirty Little Secret” by The All-American Rejects. 

“Did you see that sustained note I hit there?!” he shouts, and Aster and Ellie rally him on even though they have no idea what he’s talking about.

“How about Amsterdam?” Ellie suggests when Paul moves on to a Killers song.

“A dream,” Aster says, then leans forward to pepper a tiny kiss onto Ellie’s nose, “just like you.”

_ “Guys,”  _ Paul whines, “you’re not paying attention!”

Ellie laughs and throws him the rock symbol, her middle and ring finger curled into her palm.

“You’re killing it!” Aster tells him. “Get it? It’s a pun, because it’s The Killers’ song. See, I do know modern music!”

Paul breaks away from the game for just a moment to give Aster a pleased but astonished look. “Impressive. Now please tell me you know who Post Malone is.”

Aster shrugs. Paul groans. 

“You just saw him when he selected the song, didn’t you?” Ellie whispers seconds after Paul turns back around and strums erratically.

“Shh,” Aster replies, then darts in to kiss Ellie quick. She tastes like citrus chapstick, sunscreen and summer, something Ellie knows she’ll dream of in the wintertime, even though she’ll still have the same lips to kiss then. 

Dublin sounds nice, but Ellie thinks it can wait. Things are just fine right here, right now, with her people. In fact, Ellie wouldn’t want it any other way.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi and celebrate pride month with me on Tumblr [here.](https://sweeterthankarma.tumblr.com/)


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